A couple of days back, Srivalli and myself were discussing some recipes for the Indian Cooking Challenge and amongst other cuisines and dishes, I remembered a briyani and gravy from the Chettinad cuisine of Tamil Nadu. Srivalli decided to go with the Briyani and it was really a good choice!

One of the cuisines that fascinate me next to the Kongunad cuisine is the famous Chettinad cuisine. When I visit the stores, I usually pick up a couple of new spices and once I picked up Maratti Mokku and Kalpasi. These two spices are extensively used in the Chettinad cuisine and I wanted to try them out in some dishes.

Somehow that never got done until it was time to make a dish for ICC.The chosen dish was the vegetable briyani and I was so glad to find that it used the Maratti Mokku.

I never thought this dish would be received so well at home!I had this for lunch and Lil Angel tasted a bit after she came back from school and later wanted a plateful.What was left,which was quite a fair portion, was served to hubby for dinner and he was so disappointed that he could not have more!
I will be making this again and that time will be sure to double the recipe!

In the same cooker, add the whole spices,onion, ginger garlic paste and saute for a few minutes.Add mint and coriander leaves and saute for a minute.Put in the veggies and tomato.

Add the chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and mix well. Keep the flame on low and cook for a minute,Add 2 cups of water [or the quantity the quantity that you normally use for 1 cup rice] and give a nice stir.Cover and bring to boil.[Do not put on the stopper/ weight]. It will take just a minute to come to a boil.